Peterborough charity expecting surge in domestic abuse this winter
New figures released by the Office for National Statistics show 5% of adults have experienced domestic abuse in the past year
Peterborough Women's Aid expecting surge in domestic abuse calls this winter.
New figures released by the office for national statistics show 5% of adults have experienced domestic abuse in the past year.
Peterborough Women's Aid says it's expecting a rise in calls from domestic abuse victims in January.
The CEO Mandy Geraghty, said although Christmas can be an extremely difficult time for victims of domestic abuse, it's important that awareness is raised all year round:
'We do find a lot of victims in a relationship might feel that they will stay in that relationship for the Christmas period, because they don't want to disrupt family life because they have children. We do tend to find our referrals do go up in January when people have made that decision to leave that abusive relationship.'
'We have to be really cautious with campaigns that say domestic abuse gets worse at Christmas. Like with other campaigns that said domestic abuse gets worse during The World Cup. From our point of view, domestic abuse happens all year and to say it happens at certain times is wrong and it minimises the perpetrator's actions.'
'We've had a lot of people say it's worse at Christmas because there's a lot of drink involved. That is wrong, because it's blaming alcohol for the actions of the perpetrator. Christmas is a risky time, yes. But it's 12 months of the year when domestic abuse happens.'